The events of this weekend made me think a lot about Paul Walker and the films that he made, especially the Fast and Furious franchise that he helped make so popular. Beyond Walker, Vin Diesel, and Michelle Rodriguez, though, the stars of the films were truly the cars.

Paul Walker fans holding a candlelight vigil in Valencia right now at the site of the car wreck.…
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I remember the first The Fast and the Furious movie coming out right as I was really starting to care about things with engines. It was almost perfectly timed for a developing boy, really, and young, impressionable me was assaulted with Eclipses, Supras, and RX-7s for an hour and a half. It was heaven on celluloid, at the time.

A lot of the cars filmed in the movie weren't created for it, but were real vehicles that had lives on the street. And that's what made them so great. They were rolling, customized works of art, that you could one day spot blazing past you. It would be as if Dégas ran by with one of his dancers strapped to his back. And while that may be hyperbole, for 13-year-old me, it most certainly was not.

Modified cars can, and often are, more beautiful than the originals. Show us the most beautiful modified cars in the comments below!